Genesis of Accountability and Auditing
Desktop research of the author could trace conventional practices for documentation of movements in economic resources, reporting and exacting accountability from the in-charge of exchequer during the period of 1500 Before Common Era (BCE or BC). According to Kautilya’s Arthshastra1 , this practice continued over centuries with progressively improved processes for recording and accountability of rajashyas (king’s levies) and expenses to run the kingdom. The underlying objective of ensuring such accountability is essentially mitigation of various risks perceived by the kings of ancient era. Pre-Vedic and Vedic literature, written by Rishi (Sage) Veda Vyas, sages of his clan and subsequent other literature, contain many references about audit. Mahajan and Mahajan2 traced that in Valmiki’s Ramayana there was a reference of auditing. Lord Rama asked his cousin brother Bharata, when the latter came to meet him during his exile, whether the income of his kingdom was more than expenditure or vice versa. In Mahabharata King Dbarmaraj Judhistir advised his younger brother Nakula to look after the army’s accounts. It seems that in that era independent record keeping by itself involved auditing, because the person responsible was a man of confidence like Nakula exacting accountability from persons in-charge of handling economic resources. Here again the drivers were anxieties driven by risks perception of a probability of the kingdom suffering from resource crisis or the army not being appropriately equipped and trained due to shortage or misappropriation of resources. According to Wikipedia3 , “By about the 4th century BC, the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians had auditing systems for checking movements in and out of storehouses, including oral “audit reports…” LEE Teck-Heang and Azham Md. Ali4 observed in their seminal paper on evolution of auditing that.  Learn more  from pdf >>>>>>